Itronics Expands Silver Bullion Production Using E-scrap

RENO, NV--(Marketwired - May 23, 2017) - Itronics Inc. (OTC PINK: ITRO), a diversified zinc fertilizer and silver producing green technology Company, today announced that it has started silver bullion production using e-scrap (ground up computer circuit boards) as a "cost reducing" precious metal bearing raw material. E-scrap is readily available in large quantities, creating the opportunity to expand the breakthrough recovery operation in phases to a meaningful commercial scale.

"Bullion sales from this process will begin to generate revenues for Itronics early in the third quarter. The new revenue stream will be coming on line when seasonal fertilizer sales are declining. The drought in California has ended. GOLD'n GRO fertilizer sales are increasing above expectations there and the new silver bullion revenue stream will provide a welcome addition to revenues in the second half of this year," said Dr. John Whitney, Itronics President.

Itronics has done more than 20 test melts using one of its large furnaces and this generated part of the bullion shipped early this year and has subsequently produced several hundred ounces of bullion not yet shipped. The test melts have been working well so the Company has put its second large melting furnace into operation. Itronics is now operating both furnaces and is establishing an operating schedule for bullion production. Current silver bullion production is approximately 1500 troy ounces per month.

Process optimization is continuing and further furnace operation improvements are being identified and implemented as part of the process into continuous operation. Between January and mid-April the "per melt" production tripled, from 500 to 1500 ounces per month. The Company believes that improvements over the next several months could increase "per melt" recoveries by another 20 to 50 percent. Under the Company's bullion sales agreement, the elapsed time between shipment and payment is approximately 60 days. Silver bullion shipped in the second quarter will be reported in the third quarter sales results.

Using e-scrap as a raw material represents a new "Zero Waste" technology for Itronics and is expected to significantly increase both the profitability of the silver recovery operation and the Company's revenues. Because of the "cost reducing" characteristics of this breakthrough silver recovery technology, the Company believes that the silver bullion production segment has the potential to become the stable non-seasonal cash flow generating revenue stream that Itronics has been seeking. "Base and precious metals prices are expected to continue to increase, so adding gold, palladium, and copper to the sales mix will expand and stabilize revenues as the silver recovery operation expands," Dr. Whitney explained.

With the new process, e-scrap is completely converted to green energy and saleable goods. The breakthrough metal recovery concept uses the silver from photographic liquids to collect the metals contained in the e-scrap into saleable bullion. A novel aspect of this breakthrough technology is that the Company uses the measured composition of several different raw materials, including e-scrap, plus fluxes, to formulate and produce a new chemical composition of glass that is able to reject all of the base and precious metals recovered from the e-scrap into the silver bullion, except for a very small amount of silver and copper which remains in the copper-silver glass produced by the process. In terms of operations, the new process is a glass manufacturing operation that produces silver bullion as a by-product. In terms of value, the silver bullion is the main value and the glass is presently a byproduct value.

Itronics is developing a portfolio of integrated technologies whose objective is to use certain hazardous and non-hazardous waste materials as low cost raw materials to increase the profitability of saleable goods manufacturing. Use of these waste materials as manufacturing raw material permanently eliminates them as a waste stream that requires long term safe storage and long term environmental oversight and management, providing a significant reduction in long term environmental cost and risk to society. Because of this, these technologies have been described by the International Chemical Engineering Society (IChemE) as "Zero Waste Technologies" and Itronics was awarded second place for this achievement at the worldwide IChemE award ceremonies at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, England. The award was recognition of the breakthrough represented by Itronics' photo-liquid conversion technology which uses spent silver-bearing photo-liquids as raw material to produce silver bullion and GOLD'n GRO liquid fertilizers, thereby completely converting the hazardous materials to saleable goods and permanently eliminating the toxic waste from the environment.

About Itronics
Headquartered in Reno, Nevada, Itronics Inc. is a "Creative Green Technology" Company which produces GOLD'n GRO specialty liquid fertilizers, silver bullion, and silver-bearing glass. It owns a large Iron Oxide Copper Gold (IOCG) mineral property (the Auric Fulstone Project) in the prolific Yerington Copper Mining District in northwestern Nevada. Within the Auric Fulstone project area, the Company has discovered surface high grade zinc, lead, and silver mineralization that contain anomalous molybdenum in a large area that is geochemically anomalous for zinc. It has also discovered high grade copper mineralization that contains anomalous gold and molybdenum in a separate area that is anomalous for copper. The Company's goal is to achieve profitable green technology driven organic growth in specialty GOLD'n GRO fertilizers, silver, zinc, and minerals. The Company's technologies maximize the recovery and uses of metals and minerals and by doing this maximize sustainability.

Through its subsidiary, Itronics Metallurgical, Inc., Itronics is the only Company with a fully permitted "Beneficial Use Photochemical, Silver, and Water Recycling" plant in the United States that converts 100 percent of the spent photoliquids into GOLD'n GRO liquid fertilizers, silver bullion, and silver bearing glass. This is internationally recognized award winning "Zero Waste" Technology. The Company is developing a portfolio of environmentally beneficial "Zero waste" processing and mining technologies. Itronics has received numerous domestic and international awards that recognize its ability to successfully use chemical science and engineering to create and implement new environmentally green recycling and fertilizer technologies.

The Company's environmentally friendly award winning GOLD'n GRO liquid fertilizers, which are extensively used in agriculture, are used for lawns and houseplants and are available at the Company's "e-store" on Amazon.Com at http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=bl_sr_lawn-garden?ie=UTF8&field-brandtextbin=GOLD%27n+GRO&node=2972638011.

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("Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This press release contains or may contain forward-looking statements such as statements regarding the Company's growth and profitability, growth strategy, liquidity and access to public markets, operating expense reduction, and trends in the industry in which the Company operates. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are also subject to other risks and uncertainties, including those more fully described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, changes in risks, uncertainties or assumptions underlying or affecting such statements, or for prospective events that may have a retroactive effect.)